Very cautious optimism because Red Dragon has history of using the Panda Mask to cloud intents as a strategy. North Korea is a proxy state to their enabler, China. DPRK Kim Jong-un is little stompy-feet panda to the big panda/red dragon, Chairman Xi Jinping.

The one constant in an ever-changing universe is the gravity of China; it only goes one-way. China allows and directs what is in China’s best interests. Period.

Chairman Xi and President Trump have been deep inside a geopolitical smiling contest for over a year. Xi and Trump are playing grandmaster level geopolitical economics. Their most consequential moves are well beyond the horizon; far away from the gaze of the crowd; the media is oblivious to them.

All of this was generally under-reported and took place months before President Trump arrived in Asia last year. The U.S. media was busy pushing racism and Charlottesville narratives. More importantly this quiet activity took place while President Trump directed US Trade Rep Robert Lighthizer to begin a section 301 trade investigation (Intellectual Property theft) into China.

President Trump was ramping up the economic pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping; but more specifically Lighthizer’s action was targeting Beijing’s command and control economy along with the behavior of North Korea.

China -vs- U.S. moves have been taking place in Europe, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Cuba, Venezuela, India, Libya as well as Mexico, Canada and ASEAN nations. When dragon puts a footprint in Mexico, eagle puts a footprint in Vietnam. When eagle puts a print in India, dragon puts a print in Pakistan…. this has been going on for well over a year, well beyond the media horizon, and almost no-one’s paying attention.

Trump plays Arabella to the Panda mask, knowing the cultural dynamic means dragon cannot, and will not, show face. Similarly dragon plays magnanimous panda to Eagle knowing only retracted claws can stroke panda fur. ….And so it goes, and so it has been going…

Mr. Panda (Xi) asks how much is DPRK denuclearization worth to you Mr. Eagle (Trump)?

This is how the game is played with China. Red Dragon does not negotiate on common terms. If it is not in China’s interests, it is not done. Period. If you want to get rid of DPRK nuclear weapons, there must be a wonderful economic Panda benefit.

Possible progress being made in talks with North Korea. For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!

New York – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has expressed a willingness to begin nuclear disarmament talks with the US — and halt nuclear and missile tests during negotiations, a South Korean official said Tuesday.

Kim also agreed to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a late April summit in the border village of Panmunjom, South Korean national security chief Chung Eui Yong said after discussions in Pyongyang.

“North Korea made clear its willingness to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and the fact there is no reason for it to have a nuclear program if military threats against the North are resolved and its regime is secure,” Chung said.

According to Chung, Kim agreed not to carry out nuclear or missile tests while talks with the international community were under way. The rogue regime has not carried out any such tests since November. (read more)

Here’s what I can guarantee you. The solution to DPRK nuclear weapons will not be in the vicinity of DPRK nuclear weapons. The deal to denuclearize the Korean peninsular will be made from something far away from North Korea in a place of great value to China where President Trump has leverage and control.

This I can guarantee.

The question is: how effectively can Chairman Xi Jinping position the valuation of their economic target to make President Donald Trump view the deal as worth accepting to get rid of DPRK nukes?….. Simultaneously, how much hurt is Trump willing to position, in order to have China accept less-than-optimal economic outcomes as the best alternative?

[…] “Here in Seoul, architectural wonders like the Sixty-Three Building and the Lotte World Tower — very beautiful — grace the sky and house the workers of many growing industries.

Your citizens now help to feed the hungry, fight terrorism, and solve problems all over the world. And in a few months, you will host the world and you will do a magnificent job at the 23rd Olympic Winter Games. Good luck. (Applause.)

The Korean miracle extends exactly as far as the armies of free nations advanced in 1953 — 24 miles to the north. There, it stops; it all comes to an end. Dead stop. The flourishing ends, and the prison state of North Korea sadly begins.

Workers in North Korea labor grueling hours in unbearable conditions for almost no pay. Recently, the entire working population was ordered to work for 70 days straight, or else pay for a day of rest.

Families live in homes without plumbing, and fewer than half have electricity. Parents bribe teachers in hopes of saving their sons and daughters from forced labor. More than a million North Koreans died of famine in the 1990s, and more continue to die of hunger today.

Among children under the age of five, nearly 30 percent of afflicted — and are afflicted by stunted growth due to malnutrition. And yet, in 2012 and 2013, the regime spent an estimated $200 million — or almost half the money that it allocated to improve living standards for its people — to instead build even more monuments, towers, and statues to glorify its dictators.

What remains of the meager harvest of the North Korean economy is distributed according to perceived loyalty to a twisted regime. Far from valuing its people as equal citizens, this cruel dictatorship measures them, scores them, and ranks them based on the most arbitrary indications of their allegiance to the state.

Those who score the highest in loyalty may live in the capital city. Those who score the lowest starve. A small infraction by one citizen, such as accidently staining a picture of the tyrant printed in a discarded newspaper, can wreck the social credit rank of his entire family for many decades.

An estimated 100,000 North Koreans suffer in gulags, toiling in forced labor, and enduring torture, starvation, rape, and murder on a constant basis.

In one known instance, a 9-year-old boy was imprisoned for 10 years because his grandfather was accused of treason. In another, a student was beaten in school for forgetting a single detail about the life of Kim Jong-un.

Soldiers have kidnapped foreigners and forced them to work as language tutors for North Korean spies.

In the part of Korea that was a stronghold for Christianity before the war, Christians and other people of faith who are found praying or holding a religious book of any kind are now detained, tortured, and in many cases, even executed.

North Korean women are forced to abort babies that are considered ethnically inferior. And if these babies are born, the newborns are murdered.

One womans baby born to a Chinese father was taken away in a bucket. The guards said it did not deserve to live because it was impure.

So why would China feel an obligation to help North Korea?

The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported aboard as slaves. They would rather be slaves than live in North Korea.

To attempt to flee is a crime punishable by death. One person who escaped remarked, “When I think about it now, I was not a human being. I was more like an animal. Only after leaving North Korea did I realize what life was supposed to be.”

And so, on this peninsula, we have watched the results of a tragic experiment in a laboratory of history. It is a tale of one people, but two Koreas. One Korea in which the people took control of their lives and their country, and chose a future of freedom and justice, of civilization, and incredible achievement. And another Korea in which leaders imprison their people under the banner of tyranny, fascism, and oppression. The result of this experiment are in, and they are totally conclusive.

When the Korean War began in 1950, the two Koreas were approximately equal in GDP per capita. But by the 1990s, South Koreas wealth had surpassed North Korea’s by more than 10 times. And today, the Souths economy is over 40 times larger. You started the same a short while ago, and now you’re 40 times larger. You’re doing something right.

Considering the misery wrought by the North Korean dictatorship, it is no surprise that it has been forced to take increasingly desperate measures to prevent its people from understanding this brutal contrast.

Because the regime fears the truth above all else, it forbids virtually all contact with the outside world. Not just my speech today, but even the most commonplace facts of South Korean life are forbidden knowledge to the North Korean people. Western and South Korean music is banned. Possession of foreign media is a crime punishable by death. Citizens spy on fellow citizens, their homes are subject to search at any time, and their every action is subject to surveillance. In place of a vibrant society, the people of North Korea are bombarded by state propaganda practically every waking hour of the day.

North Korea is a country ruled as a cult. At the center of this military cult is a deranged belief in the leaders destiny to rule as parent protector over a conquered Korean Peninsula and an enslaved Korean people.

The more successful South Korea becomes, the more decisively you discredit the dark fantasy at the heart of the Kim regime.

In this way, the very existence of a thriving South Korean republic threatens the very survival of the North Korean dictatorship.

This city and this assembly are living proof that a free and independent Korea not only can, but does stand strong, sovereign, and proud among the nations of the world. (Applause.)

Here, the strength of the nation does not come from the false glory of a tyrant. It comes from the true and powerful glory of a strong and great people — the people of the Republic of Korea — a Korean people who are free to live, to flourish, to worship, to love, to build, and to grow their own destiny.

In this Republic, the people have done what no dictator ever could — you took, with the help of the United States, responsibility for yourselves and ownership of your future. You had a dream — a Korean dream — and you built that dream into a great reality.

In so doing, you performed the miracle on the Hahn that we see all around us, from the stunning skyline of Seoul to the plains and peaks of this beautiful landscape. You have done it freely, you have done it happily, and you have done it in your own very beautiful way.

This reality — this wonderful place — your success is the greatest cause of anxiety, alarm, and even panic to the North Korean regime. That is why the Kim regime seeks conflict abroad — to distract from total failure that they suffer at home.

Since the so-called armistice, there have been hundreds of North Korean attacks on Americans and South Koreans. These attacks have included the capture and torture of the brave American soldiers of the USS Pueblo, repeated assaults on American helicopters, and the 1969 drowning [downing] of a U.S. surveillance plane that killed 31 American servicemen. The regime has made numerous lethal incursions in South Korea, attempted to assassinate senior leaders, attacked South Korean ships, and tortured Otto Warmbier, ultimately leading to that fine young man’s death.

All the while, the regime has pursued nuclear weapons with the deluded hope that it could blackmail its way to the ultimate objective. And that objective we are not going to let it have. We are not going to let it have. All of Korea is under that spell, divided in half. South Korea will never allow what’s going on in North Korea to continue to happen.

The North Korean regime has pursued its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of every assurance, agreement, and commitment it has made to the United States and its allies. It’s broken all of those commitments. After promising to freeze its plutonium program in 1994, it repeated [reaped] the benefits of the deal and then — and then immediately continued its illicit nuclear activities.

In 2005, after years of diplomacy, the dictatorship agreed to ultimately abandon its nuclear programs and return to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation. But it never did. And worse, it tested the very weapons it said it was going to give up. In 2009, the United States gave negotiations yet another chance, and offered North Korea the open hand of engagement. The regime responded by sinking a South Korean Navy ship, killing 46 Korean sailors. To this day, it continues to launch missiles over the sovereign territory of Japan and all other neighbors, test nuclear devices, and develop ICBMs to threaten the United States itself. The regime has interpreted Americas past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation. This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past.

Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations, when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us, and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty.

We did not choose to draw here, on this peninsula — (applause) — this magnificent peninsula — the thin line of civilization that runs around the world and down through time. But here it was drawn, and here it remains to this day. It is the line between peace and war, between decency and depravity, between law and tyranny, between hope and total despair. It is a line that has been drawn many times, in many places, throughout history. To hold that line is a choice free nations have always had to make. We have learned together the high cost of weakness and the high stakes of its defense.

America’s men and women in uniform have given their lives in the fight against Nazism, imperialism, Communism and terrorism.

America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it. History is filled with discarded regimes that have foolishly tested Americas resolve.

Anyone who doubts the strength or determination of the United States should look to our past, and you will doubt it no longer. We will not permit America or our allies to be blackmailed or attacked. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated. And we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground, we fought and died so hard to secure. (Applause.)

That is why I have come here, to the heart of a free and flourishing Korea, with a message for the peace-loving nations of the world: The time for excuses is over. Now is the time for strength. If you want peace, you must stand strong at all times. (Applause.) The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation.

All responsible nations must join forces to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea — to deny it and any form — any form of it. You cannot support, you cannot supply, you cannot accept. We call on every nation, including China and Russia, to fully implement U.N. Security Council resolutions, downgrade diplomatic relations with the regime, and sever all ties of trade and technology.

[…] It is our responsibility and our duty to confront this danger together — because the longer we wait, the greater the danger grows, and the fewer the options become. (Applause.) And to those nations that choose to ignore this threat, or, worse still, to enable it, the weight of this crisis is on your conscience.

I also have come here to this peninsula to deliver a message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship: The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face.

North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves. Yet, despite every crime you have committed against God and man, you are ready to offer, and we will do that — we will offer a path to a much better future. It begins with an end to the aggression of your regime, a stop to your development of ballistic missiles, and complete, verifiable, and total denuclearization. (Applause.)

A sky-top view of this peninsula shows a nation of dazzling light in the South and a mass of impenetrable darkness in the North. We seek a future of light, prosperity, and peace. But we are only prepared to discuss this brighter path for North Korea if its leaders cease their threats and dismantle their nuclear program.

The sinister regime of North Korea is right about only one thing: The Korean people do have a glorious destiny, but they could not be more wrong about what that destiny looks like. The destiny of the Korean people is not to suffer in the bondage of oppression, but to thrive in the glory of freedom. (Applause.)

What South Koreans have achieved on this peninsula is more than a victory for your nation. It is a victory for every nation that believes in the human spirit. And it is our hope that, someday soon, all of your brothers and sisters of the North will be able to enjoy the fullest of life intended by God.

The globalists will try to muck the waters in a bid derail Trump from proving that the the globalists have systematically and purposefully destroying our country and exporting our wealth by the bribery of our very greedy and stupid politicians.

It is OUR job to expose them and replace them. If PDJT is forced to tweet names and they are not replaced, we run the risk of them being in a position to “McCain” (vote against) important legislation for the MAGA agenda .

There is no panda. Panda doesn’t exist. Panda is just a mask, a skin, a costume. There is only dragon. Begin and end with that one truth.

Because we are Western, we Americans, both left and right, always want to think everyone else is just like us. They are not. China, whether ruled by a communist dictator or an emperor, will always be China, and Chinese will always be Chinese. It’s not racial, but cultural, and culture does not change. Believing a “cultural revolution” can really change Chinese culture was a Marxist pipedream, itself a transplanted 19th Century WESTERN fantasy.

There is information/intel leaking into the public which describes this whole dynamic very differently.
– Wealthy banking families and the CIA deep-state have been controlling NK for decades.
– China is not the puppet master
– The deep-state has been subdued.. therefore NK is now a free country.

2018 will see many unfolding events that naturally follow on from the destruction of the deep state. All that remains is the public roll-out. Trump is having a military parade in November to celebrate very big events.

I believe the intel also paints a picture where China has been closely involved with the deep-state for decades, since Nixon’s administration, one example of this is the Clinton’s sale of America’s military secrets to China, the transfer of nuclear material to NK via Uranium One, etc… This is all part of a larger deep-state picture.

Yes China have been “playing the game”. They happily receive military secrets, intellectual property and hugely favorable trade terms from US traitors. The end goal is one world government, where China has a powerful seat at the table (but is still entirely subordinated).

Mr. Panda: How much is NK’s nukes worth to you
Mr. Eagle: We can discuss Intellectual Property (IP)
Mr. Panda: But, how about tariffs on steel and aluminum
Mr. Eagle: Too late, that’s in place
Mr. Panda: How about NAFTA
Mr. Eagle: Too late, you should have thought about it earlier
…
Mr. Panda: Hmmm.
Mr. Eagle: Take those nukes and I’ll hold back on IP tariffs a bit.
Mr Panda: (to self: dang it, I got played).

A bull moose attacked two hikers. One climbed a tree while the other guy ran into a cave. He kept coming out until the moose chased him back. The one in the tree yelled “stay in the cave you idiot” but the other guy screamed “you don’t know the local situation – there is a bear in the cave”.
– Louis L’Amour

The tariff talks are not what is scaring China 🇨🇳! Even the NAFTA negotiations aren’t the end all be all. That 301 trade investigation (Intellectual Property) is what is scaring China 🇨🇳 to death.

Our President and his Killers have positioned themselves perfectly. Gary Cohn exiting stage left sent an immediate message to China 🇨🇳 this evening. Our President is absolutely ready, willing and able to go to war with the entire damn world if he has to.

By the end of the week, the tariffs on steel and aluminum will be signed with NO exceptions. In another month or so, our President will sign the EO terminating NAFTA. That will start the 6 month countdown. A month or so after that, our President will pull us out of the South Korea 🇰🇷 trade deal.

If the European Union gets stupid, as our President said today with the Moron PM of Sweden 🇸🇪 next to him, he will slap a 25% tariff on European cars 🚗 imported into our country.

Xi will know at this point that the hammer 🔨 is about to be dropped from the 301 investigation. We are talking about crippling sanctions across the board on nearly everything China 🇨🇳 imports into the USA 🇺🇸. PM Modi from India 🇮🇳 is waiting patiently to step in where China 🇨🇳 once was.

To me, NK is about stopping the hammer 🔨 from falling on China 🇨🇳 over the 301 investigation.

China 🇨🇳 sees the writing on the wall! Tax Reform passed, deregulation happening at record speed. The Senate today moved forward with 50 Republicans and 17 Democrats to basically destroy Dodd-Frank. Major deregulation of the banking system is coming. Especially for banks with less than $10 billion dollars 💵 in assets.

China 🇨🇳 also saw this tweet and realizes the ramifications for both our country and theirs because of our Energy Dominance!

We’re exporting American energy again: “U.S. Will Be the World’s Largest Oil Producer by 2023, Says @IEAgov” via @WSJhttps://t.co/EVmtliJu0B

The U.S. will overtake Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2023, accounting for most of the global growth in petroleum supplies, a top industry monitor said Monday.

U.S. crude production is expected to reach a record of 12.1 million barrels a day in 2023, up about 2 million barrels a day from this year, said the International Energy Agency, which advises governments and corporations on industry trends. American oil output will surge past Russia, currently the world’s largest crude producer at about 11 million barrels a day.

PDJT will be all in trade war with China with outrageous $1T tariffs on China with Section 301. Then start negotiating while tariffs in place, China will fold just to stop the clock. That will be the formula to other countries trade deal negotiations

I am suddenly flashing on the Apple move of not long ago. Is there any chance they brought some jobs and business back here because they don’t want any intellectual property battles over iDevices? I can’t recall the exact details of what/why they came back…

I think that’s a good assessment – that IP is part of the reason to come back, even if TAX RATE is what Apple talked about (or didn’t talk about, and let people assume) publicly.

Look at the big picture. In addition to its proud tradition of sneaky IP theft all across the planet, China has tried to build legalized IP theft into the use of its work force OR access to its market, by forcing toxic deals onto anything that moves. So Apple has THAT on one side. But then on the other side is going to be a government that protects them HERE in America – with lower taxes, reduced regulation AND with an aggressive defense against IP theft and other threats. And a President who will USE TARIFFS and OTHER MEASURES to defend our economic interests, and not fold every time like a CHUMP.

Now – to explain why this is even more compelling.

There is a lot of 301 horror about Chinese IP theft that would rock the world if people generally knew about it. Nobody except victims in tech wants to talk about it, and then only in hushed, scandal-preventing whispers. Meanwhile, the panda-stroking UniParty fur-fetish idiots had NO real inclination to ever do anything about it except make money, gain power, and avoid their own blackmail stories. Nobody EVER did anything real, because CHINA had a majority of people in power in America chasing globalist laser-pointers that could NEVER be traced back to the one true economic and defense beneficiary.

So who is sitting on all that now? NOT “Bags of Chinese Cash” Hillary. NOT Bill “Missile Tech to China” Clinton. NOT “Microdonations” Maobama. And not a New World Order Bush Dynasty princeling.

That particularly blackened tea leaf is one that I’m sure a lot of people in big tech are reading properly now.

Wolf -spot on as always. Another national security risk I hope will be addressed is all the Chinese Nationals employed by the Federal Government. I live in the DC metro area. In the last 5-7 years I’ve been meeting more and more Chinese in my business. And they’re working at places like NIH, Social Security Administration etc. Courtesy of Clinton/Bush/Obama policies. Companies are dumb enough to hire them in IT departments too. Not sure it’s a great idea to allow access to systems.

China is a Communist country. You don’t get to leave unless they let you. Just saying there might be some dual loyalties. Doesn’t anyone think of that?

Trump: If you allow the NORKS to succeed with Nukes, what will America have to do?

On the Trade Front:
• Announce the impossibility of protecting any American business with China?
• Announce that ALL ocean and air freight with China is now at risk of attack?
• Place ALL insurers of ocean freight with China on watch lists for failure?
• Expose the full extent of Chinese Theft of American IP?
• Impose Sanctions to recover the full cost and future value of stolen American IP?
• Impose 100% Tariffs on imports from China?

On the Political Front:
• Expose the American Politicians and Elections that China has bought off?
• Expose the Leaders of American Business and NGOs that China has bought off?

On the Financial Front:
• Expose the Chinese Banks that have transferred funds to those bought off?
• Expose the Chinese Banks that have funded the NORKS?
• Ban all financial transactions with Chinese Banks?
• Ban trade with nations dealing with Chinese Banks?

On the Investment Front:
• Forecast China’s nationalization of American investments in China?
• Terminate Chinese ownership of any businesses in America?
• Confiscate Chinese assets in America?

On the People Front:
• Deport Chinese nationals from America?
• Eliminate Chinese-born people from American Government and Industry?

“There is a lot of 301 horror about Chinese IP theft that would rock the world if people generally knew about it”

I see the tip of the iceberg in all these products that are cheap counterfeits of patented name brand products. A few other examples of things locally here in WNY state with counterfeiting trademarked products -selling them at 1/3 cost (or less) with no tariff penalties- repeated across the land.

They will need more clerks when people and companies start filing claims because of Chinese IP theft AND counterfeiting patented name brand products.

Oh, it will reach up into every store in America. Lowes, Home Depot, Macy’s –
everything.

I was replacing a 1980’s AMERICAN security light fixture that had finally succumbed to 30+ years of exposure to weather. As we put the NEW Chinese lamp in its place, I marveled at how close of a copy it was. The electrician cursed from the ladder – one of the socket features simply SNAPPED THE METAL as he was screwing it in. He removed the entire fixture.

But then the QUALITY of the American part gave me an idea. We dissected the old American lamp and replaced all the necessary broken parts with the old American ones from its better socket.

This thing was just low-end electronics. This will reach through the whole system. And yet – the entire problem of PRODUCT COPYING is the tip of the iceberg. They don’t just copy – they SUBVERT INDUSTRIES. Those are the stories that will shut down the whole operation. When China has two choices – (1) BALANCED trade, untrusted, watched like a hawk, no nukes in Korea, we get to check like we’re embedded there, and enough stories revealed that they know we mean business, or (2) the world sees it all, and people scream to lock out China from ALL TRADE, and to start building VAST new missile systems and defense grids pointed at China – maybe with triple our nukes – well – China will choose wisely.

Brilliant! Any suggestion that NAFTA will be continued to allow a backdoor to China is not going to happen. We know Trump. His thoughts are, ‘why should i go through the back door when I can use the front door now that NAFTA is gone? ‘ Nuff said.

Awesome Flep!!! MAGA. We need those tarifs with no exceptions to help the poor people in the Rust Belt who were crapped on by our own government over the last 30 years.
We need to get out of NAFTA to stop the back door dumping of products into our country by China which has killed our manufacturing industry.
It is America’s turn now. MAGA

In this Republic (S.Korea), the people have done what no dictator ever could, You took, with the help of the United States, responsibility for yourselves and ownership of your future. You had a dream, a Korean dream, and you built that dream into a great reality. – President Donald J. Trump

NK nukes or no nukes, it is a mirage, China has its own nukes. If China wanted a nuclear war they could just fire the missiles.

China intends on dominating every industry in the world and they are well on their way. If you want to see how China would treat our population once they have the upper hand, just look at NK’s countrymen. Think that is a joke? An aberration? Wouldn’t happen? Cruelty knows no limit, and China is only for China. Americans tend to think everyone is just like us. Rainbows and Unicorns.

Stay on the sidewalk, stick to fair and reciprocal. This economic ship of ours is just beginning to turn, just beginning. It will be a long time before it is really righted.

You are right that it will take a long time, which is why it is even more important to keep the foot on the gas pedal or our boots on the necks of progressives to prevent anyone from messing this up, or stunting its growth before realizing its full potential Long after Trump is gone, someone will need to fill in, to complete the process, which is why we must win at all costs, and keep winning enough to pass this on to the next generations to protect! First Soros and the Obamas need serous reckoning to be permanently eradicated from ever influencing our Democracy ever again! In other words we must remain vigilant to protect our status and all that we hold dear, and to not become what Canada is about to become! China is our number one security risk, and they must be dealt with using the same methods they prescribe to in order to dominate the world economically. We just been lulled into a make belief world sold to us by corrupt political leaders. This can not continue! 30+ years of this nonsense is a long time for a mess to get this big and will take a long time to fix. Start with the infrastructure reinvestment act, and get the engines roaring again.

Campaign finance laws will have to be reformed in order to prevent the legalized bribery that has taken place, if our Republic is too survive.
That is further down the road, after the recovery has taken place and the traitors that sold us out will have been exposed for ALL to see.

Yes campaign finance laws definitely need reform, and is also an inherent risk to US National security. If our political leaders are compromised by corruption and bribery, then there is no hope for proper and just governance to the people, hence the term “Banana Republic!”

Well, you can say China caused this but I think it was our President.s perfect plan as such.

Remember the killing of those Russian contractors in Syria the other day? 200 were killed by B-52’s, Drones, and jet fighters. B-52’s 100 to 200 people? A, one, B-52 can carry 20 to 25 2000 lb bombs. Have you ever seen a 2000 lb bomb crater? You can put a small house in one. And there are never just one B-52’s on one mission. Usually two to four. 4 would be over 80,000 lbs of bombs in a small area for 100-200 Russian contractors.

Previous to the attack they jammed all their communications. Everything, probably with upgraded A-4 intruder aircraft. Do you know what happens in an area that is completely jammed from communications? Your first thought is: “Oh Shit” “Here it comes” The survivors are probably still in shock and just drooling from their mouths.

For 100-200 Russian contractors to be dealt with a sledge hammer when only a fly swatter was needed is a message. This wasn’t China’s message to North Korea, this was our President’s special message to Lil’ Kim. “This is what can happen to you if you continue to mess around.”

Also carbon copied was Russia and China. You seen Putin’ response. But…but…but.

Then the icing. Two scoops. The tariffs on China. Another message. China. “Make em move or else.”

Now little KIm is coming hat in hand……and Russia and China know who the Big Dog is.

Good write. Gulf 1 served the same purpose with Russia. Once they saw individual bombs take out buildings and tanks along with after action reports of the M1 Abrams performance, they knew the jig was up.

Minor nitpick. There are no A4 Intruders, and believe the A6E was out of service in 1997. But to your point Russia in Afghanistan did not change their tactics or improve their equipment. Hallmark of our fighting is changing both tactics and our technology to neutralize any threat.

I am not a doctor and do not play one on TV, but I think the concussive blasts not strong enough to kill you (directly or by debris) also do a number on your internal organs (and possibly the brain) that take several weeks to recover from.

Trump’s economic diplomacy reminds me of General Grant’s military strategy.

Until Grant assumed overall command of the Union Armies in early 1864, the Union’s vast advantages in manpower and war material were squandered by whack-a-mole strategy. Union armies launched uncoordinated campaigns which allowed the Confederacy to shift limited resources to a single crisis point, defeating or stalemating one army after another. Grant realized that in order to end the war, the Union had to make a coordinated push across a broad front and make that push relentless. The results were bloody- downright awful in the paths of Sherman and Sheridan- but the war was over less than a year later. The acid of war stopped eating into American society.

Trump, like Grant, recognizes the material of superiority. Trump, like Grant, realizes the potential inherent in deploying the weapons at his disposal across a broad, simultaneous front. Trump, like Grant, is unafraid of what his enemies may do or what they may say about him. Trump, like Grant, is resolved to use the power at hand to achieve victory.

From Syria (Russia and Iran) to Qatar (the Sunni fanatics) to North Korea (China) Trump is pushing the force of American economics across a global front in order to solve the myriad crises which have been allowed to fester- quite frankly nurtured- for decades at the expense of the Western democracies. North Korea and Iran can longer be played off against one another as threats. No more whack-a-mole.

Grant and Adm Farragut made regular successful advances in attacking and capturing areas of the Mississippi River eventually cutting TX and LA from the South’s logistic base…1863 also saw success in the TN front leading to Sherman’s march the next year……although historians tend to focus on the war in N VA there were other actions going on and Grant’s appointment there is what brought Lee’s rampage along that area to heel

Correct. The successful Western campaigns had likely already doomed the Confederacy. However, by 1864 the question was not whether the Confederacy could be defeated, but when and to what degree.

Southern strategy in 1864 focused on prolonging the war as possible, wearing down the Northern will to fight. Lincoln faced re-election that November and could hardly be considered a shoe-in for a second term. A McClellan victory over Lincoln would have given the Southern states a much more sympathetic partner to negotiate peace with, particularly regarding the status of slavery.

My morning cruise through blogs and find this pearl. I’m halfway through Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee by Michael Korda.

Lee’s one concern was time, he knew superiority of the north in both men and material and the need to go on the offensive to get the North to the table. Let’s hope our economy has enough leverage and people have enough smarts to see this through. Changing the world without war would be the greatest accomplishment.

One has to just KNOW that Trump is forcing the Norks to the table with massive defeats under the table. Everything SCREAMS that Trump is killing this guy. Norks pull some secret crap. Trump pulls 10 times worse against Rocket Man. China pulls some secret crap. Trump pulls 10 times worse in secret, and one good swipe in public for extra face loss.

Everything Trump said about not telegraphing to our enemies was true. Not only as an honest tactical method, but as a kind of bona fide that Trump was not in fact AIDING and ABETTING our enemies by “hint hint” methods, like we always suspected everybody else was doing in the FAKE UniParty government.

Trump’s push-back on that nasty leftist piece of work Martha Raddatz at the second Hillary debate was genius. He just rejected the media’s FAKE foreign policy and military expertise and CRUSHED them.

Here you go:

RADDATZ: What do you think will happen if it falls? [baiting Trump on “Aleppo” talking point used by CIA/CNN, in particular delivered by S.E. Cupp and other fake conservative CNN girly-hawk anchors, who tried to “body-shame” with dead Syrian kids and some kind of weird cross-gender virtue-signal psychology, to get Trump to adopt a pro-ISIS position.]

TRUMP: I think that it basically has fallen. OK? It basically has fallen. Let me tell you something. You take a look at Mosul. The biggest problem I have with the stupidity of our foreign policy, we have Mosul. They think a lot of the ISIS leaders are in Mosul. So we have announcements coming out of Washington and coming out of Iraq, we will be attacking Mosul in three weeks or four weeks. [Trump refuses to think reactively, and forces switch to forward thinking, like a true military tactician, avoiding media trap, while proving he’s a better thinker.]

Well, all of these bad leaders from ISIS are leaving Mosul. Why can’t they do it quietly? Why can’t they do the attack, make it a sneak attack, and after the attack is made, inform the American public that we’ve knocked out the leaders, we’ve had a tremendous success? People leave. Why do they have to say we’re going to be attacking Mosul within the next four to six weeks, which is what they’re saying? How stupid is our country? [Trump turns it around on an indictment of all UniParty presidential abuse of the military. He makes it apparent by questions that indicate to common sense that something is very, very, very wrong.]

RADDATZ: There are sometimes reasons the military does that. Psychological warfare. [Fake news moled-out CIA deflection talking point number one. She is caught off guard and sounds weak.]

TRUMP: I can’t think of any. I can’t think of any. And I’m pretty good at it. [Trump utterly rejects fake news moled-out CIA deflection talking point number one. Audience knows that what she is saying smells like bullshit.]

RADDATZ: It might be to help get civilians out. [Fake news moled-out CIA deflection talking point number two. Appeal to the wimpy cry-baby manipulable #MeToo girly girls with no discernment and S.E. Cupp-hypnotized groveling beta males.]

TRUMP: And we have General Flynn. And we have — look, I have 200 generals and admirals who endorsed me. I have 21 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients who endorsed me. We talk about it all the time. They understand, why can’t they do something secretively, where they go in and they knock out the leadership? How — why would these people stay there? I’ve been reading now… [Trump ignores fake news moled-out CIA deflection talking point number two and goes straight to military cred, implying that THEY think this Obama stuff is nuts.]

RADDATZ: Tell me what your strategy is. [Fake news moled-out CIA technique to assert press intellectual superiority over military and Trump. She soothes beltway leftists, but alienates Trump voters. Who is this crying leftist beayatch to judge ANYTHING about ANYTHING?]

TRUMP: … for weeks — I’ve been reading now for weeks about Mosul, that it’s the harbor of where — you know, between Raqqa and Mosul, this is where they think the ISIS leaders are. Why would they be saying — they’re not staying there anymore. They’re gone. Because everybody’s talking about how Iraq, which is us with our leadership, goes in to fight Mosul. [Trump appeals to common sense. Audience realizes press is lying.]

Now, with these 200 admirals and generals, they can’t believe it. All I say is this. General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur are spinning in their grave at the stupidity of what we’re doing in the Middle East. [Trump finishes with military bona fides and a joke. Press credibility gone.]

The Norks have been sitting at the table for the last three years ignored by Obozo and
PDJT.You guys need to get a little more informed instead of regurgitating propaganda.
Its the USA that broke every previous agreement.

Well, well just called the govt and their warning letter about suspension of electricity was a mistake. LOL.

Now back to the subject at hand. I agree with the general thrust of this post (and President Trump’s speech to South Korea was one to be treasured through the ages). A few thoughts.

China likes to work through proxies, as we know, and their favorite bitch is Russia. Russia has given cover to China as abiding by sanctions, by violating them in trade sanctions and numerous instances such as laundering coal from NK, gasoline (testimony from NK informants), guest workers et al.

Russia has also announced an intergovernmental visit with NK to talk trade and science and tech transfers at the end of March. (maybe give Kim the key to his missile reentry problem). After all, the soviet scientists that lost their jobs in the 1990s soviet collapse went to NK, and by all accounts their new missiles on parade just before the Olympics, as Jane’s identified, are based on Russian missile tech.

All of this goes into Kim III’s calculations. Partly it his his Dad’s playbook (feint compliance for goodies and time and keep the main objective in train, Nuclear armament). After all, ‘Dad’ was raised in Russia (little Yuri), and Little Kim’s main dynastic rivals (from the first wife not the concubines) fled to China, with one who was murdered in Malaysia, China is not his preferred partner. He even refused to meet the new Chinese envoy Kong Xuanyou.

Having said that, Kim, China, Russia agree on one goal and how to achieve it: Drive a wedge between SK and US and Allies, double freeze (unverifiable) and expulsion of the US from SK. That is what all the peace talks and reunification means. So small or large as they say in Macau casinos. Place your bets.

The counter moves to China’s imperialist ambitions, as we know is India and the Indo-Pacific security strategy. It has now gone beyond the Quads as Britain and France (don’t laugh) have joined forces and training and are steaming their way to the SC sea.

What is of interest is that NK said exactly the same thing after the HS-14 missile launch in 2017. How did the pundits miss that? The message was, clearly, we give up Nukes, only if the US goes away and then we can have reunification under the Kim dynasty (paraphrasing).

If there are ‘negotiations’ it shall be interesting to see if their ‘wedge’ strategy is working, i.e., divide SK from the US security umbrella.

Unfortunately, No. 1, is the sticking point. It is hard to believe, besides the fact that sanctions have had success (hahaha everyone who said sanctions don’t work), that Kim would have an entire volte-face from his oft stated position and his State media who were still saying that ‘we will never negotiate our nuclear missiles’ even as the meeting was being held. It also belies the fact that their plutonium plant has gone operational. I’m sure the US understands the scam, but no one wants war. Patience they say is a virtue. Too bad the oppressed are bearing the burden.

BTW, when the news calls the talks ‘unprecedented’ or a ‘surprise’ or ‘game changer’ they have no idea about the past six decades of negotiations and appeasement. Meh.

Removal of US troops from SK without complete and verified military defanging of NK (especially the nukes) means conquest of SK by NK. Period. No ifs and or buts. That has been the strategy of the Kims from day one. The only country that would benefit from the destruction and looting of the 11th largest economy of the world (and a big trading partner with Japan and US, and many other countries) would be China in that an economic rival would be removed. Plus how many millions would die under the gentle rain of Kim III? You really want that to happen?

I’ve noticed the propaganda msm has officially broadcast this in a carefully crafted light. This means a backroom strategy has been devised by the American communists and China. They really don’t want the tariffs so they came up with this scheme. I have no confidence in this at all. It’s all a con job. DPRK has been told to just pretend to be nice and play along for awhile..

Sundance, your posts on trade are invaluable. I enjoy them more than all the other topics. I pass them along to friends and family who remark how the material and analysis is easy to grasp and enjoyable to read. Many have commented how it is their road map to processing the other news they hear.

I can grasp the scope of solar panel trade, and steel trade, but not the IP aspect.

Amazon has some good reads, that are not too long, covering intellectual property. The IP issue is multi-level, and not consistent across nations. “Trade Secret” protection has been a matter of state law, although there have been and continue to be some developments to solidify trade-secret norms and practices across USA. Other forms of IP, such as U.S. patents, are solid at the national level, but have varying levels of recognition and enforcement at the international level.

A lot has been afoot, and is now afoot, to have norms across nations, but obviously one nation can decline to voluntarily join in, and gets to reap the advantages.

A smartphone has layers of IP with complex arrangements allowing any one company to get a smartphone out there. Apple is more simple, since much is proprietary, but android is more complicated than I can understand.

President Trump is a builder by vocation . He built the LEVERAGE that brings us to this phase . A point where a nuclear free Koran Peninsula is on the table . A threat of China losing back door access to 1/4 of the world market .

A situation where Mr Eagle controls the upper hand . And Mr Panda can be save face on two fronts as once . Seen by the GLOBAL community to get Un to de-nuke while still having at least some access to USA market .

NOW …will the gas station off ramp go to MEXICO or CANADA ?

Me thinks that the off ramp to allow SOME CHINA STEEL and SOME MEXICAN auto parts will get the Mr Eagle nod ..BUT …Mexico will pay for …wait for it …….THE WALL ..with a little help from China too .

Everyone will get to “save FACE ” and WE WILL GET TO MAGA . We will know that it was all about Trump’s AMERICA FIRST POLICIES and his uncanny ART OF THE DEAL LEVERAGE .

For the things that the leftists and snowflakes primarily buy. I don’t want to start mentioning names because undoubtedly there is a conservative driving a Prius somewhere to a Starbucks cappucino maker.

One challenge with NK is that the establishment stays in place with the Cult ploy: the entire world is against, us, and we are the virtuous ones; our life is bad because of them, not your beloved dictator. If they would only leave us alone, we would be in Utopia.

And, one day they will come to get us.

[analogous to Branch Davidians, and the LDS, at the time the Feds lined up to invade Nauvoo, and the Guyana tragedy, which happened just as the long arm of the law was coming in to investigate.]

–This guiding belief is how they keep people in check. If the leaders give up on nukelar weapons, they are letting go of a major part of this rhetoric that justifies their regime.

As I understand the latest NK and SK negotiations, KJU is willing to at least pretend to give up nukes in order to keep his ruthless totalitarian regime in place.

I was in Korea as a child in the Yong Dong Po Army base when the war started. While the base was bombed and our planes destroyed, we were hunkered down in our homes with blankets over the windows, and evacuated in the dark of the night hidden in the hold of a guano ship and taken to Japan.

We all knew it was really Red China behind the NK attack, and that’s who we were fighting throughout the whole Korean war, just as we knew we were really fighting Russia in Viet Nam.

I still know a bit of Korean and sing their national folk song Arirang which is really about the two Koreas divided by powerful ideological forces.

To KJU and China, which is just as totalitarian and possibly just as cruel and certainly just as thieving and dishonest – I say heck no.

The Chinese, Russian and NK regimes deserve no respect and no quarter. Just as Obama/Clinton/Bush regimes and their $0r0$/Islam backed nefarious interests deserve no quarter.

If SK knuckles under and gives up any of its freedoms and expels the US military for the illusion of reunification, they are stupid beyond belief.

If reunification means allowing the Kim regime to hold power over one or both, I hope the two Koreas remain divided. The Kims should be tried in world court for crimes against humanity. China should be exposed for its perfidies and human rights abuses as should Islamism.

This Georigafl. As I noted above. I really do not desire our military there permanently. But, but, if in any fashion Kim or any one near him gets put in charge of “anything” after a reunification South Korea is finished.

Also , Russia, and especially China would almost assuredly take over. The both have wanted South Korea for decades. Not for economics, but for military advantage and….this fact. Slave Labor.

Just look at the North now. That is exactly how the South will end up. All it’s assets taken and divided up between a few.

So it may be worked out for the best, but it will take a long time.

Former President’s all the way back to Truman absolutely messed this up. And it is an absolute shame, that China, Russia, and even Japan, consider the Korean people slaves.

Look it up. Keep our military there Not for Political purposes, , but to save the Korean people.

Gunny, several years ago my wife and I were dining at a Japanese steak house in New Bern, NC and sitting adjacent to us were four young Marine couples. They were then stationed at the Cherry Point Marine Air base. We struck up conversations with them and it was interesting to note that the Marines had served in South Korea. They were unanimous in their opinions that they would rather serve additional tours in either Iraq or Afghanistan than ever having to return to South Korea. They said the people didn’t like them there and their experiences there were not pleasant.

That really surprised me with their levels of intensity about that experience, and that they would gladly choose to be back in active war zones than return to South Korea. Incidentally, I picked up their checks as a way to express our gratitude for their service.

Like the Japanese and the Chinese, the Koreans are actually quite racist. Syngman Rhee wanted to drown the tugi, the children that were the result of liaisons between American serviceman and Korean women, and for many decades these offspring and their mothers were ostracized by Korean society. I believe the attitude has softened somewhat with time.

Well, if those American servicemen would have done the honorable thing and brought those women and children back here with them, there would not have been that problem, would there?
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

My feisty little Mama looked just like a petite female DJT. Just like DJT and Phyllis Schlafly, she turned blonde, not silver in her old age…’their golden years.’ Maybe it’s a Scots-Irish thing, like freckles, of which Mama had a profusion.

After reading this, I think the only reason the Communist Party agreed to remove term limits on Xi is to deal with President Trump. I wonder if they won’t rescind that mandate if Xi fails to deliver results for the communists.

I had never heard or read that speech by President Trump in South Korea. It was beautifully written; thanks for posting it.

I will be disappointed if Presidents Trump and Xi have not agreed in principle to create a unified, neutral, non-nuclear Korea. This would be in everyone’s interest, would recognize China’s increased economic and military power in the region, and might even give us some leverage on other critical issues, e.g. the South China Sea. Of course, the devil is in the details, but it is at least plausible that both North and South leaders have been told that this is their future.

China likes to have North Korea as a ‘buffer’ between the American ally South Korea and its own border. A unified Korea would have to be militarily neutral, something like Finland, and participate in both the US and Chinese economic spheres. Its neutrality could be guaranteed by a treaty among China, the US, Russia, and Japan. Kim will be happy in a villa in Switzerland. /LEJ

Somebody tell Trump that he has another card to play if the Chinese get uppity. Taiwan. Trump can recognize it as an independent country.

Or how about this. Trump should tell Xi Jinping that if he does not disarm his “allies”, we’ll arm ours with nukes. Give Both Taiwan and S Korea 30 nukes apiece and an ABM system. S Korea can hit the Chinese. Anybody wanna play hard ball??

Somebody should remind Xi Jinping that there is a Nuclear War theory that says when One Flies, they All Fly.

What if Xi Jinping would reply as Mao Tse Tung is reported to have told a Yugoslav visitor to Peking in 1957: “We have a very large territory and a big population. Atomic bombs could not kill all of us.”
“What if they killed 300 million of us? We would still have many people left.”

Xi Jinping can tell a fool anything he wants, but Xi Jinping knows better. It takes very few nukes to take out China. It was demonstrated to a Chinese General years ago by a friend of mine who had the proper tools, the “pie cutter” device for calculating the effects of a nuclear blast.

IMHO POTUS Trump does not have to give away NAFTA to get DPRK. The prize is access to the largest economy in the world. That can be granted through the front door on our terms out in the open. What the world has not realized and even our own leaders and maybe even We the People is that without the US, none of this works. WTO, NATO, none of it. The entire United States suffers from narcissistic abuse syndrome not realizing what amazing people we are and how important we are to the whole world.

I love this post and all the comments. My belief is that Xi is telling Kim to cooperate on the nukes for now because President Trump is term-limited, and will only be in power at most for 7 more years. I think he believes, with justification, that the swamp disagrees with every bit of PDJT’s foreign policy, especially the economic portion of it, and will happily resume the old corrupt and stupid globalist policies once he is gone. Xi thinks that President Trump stands alone, and for the most part he is right.
What he and the swampies don’t get is that POTUS Trump only stands alone in Washington. He is hugely (or bigly) supported by the rest of the country. They also don’t get that we the people have the power to replace the Congressmen with actual statesmen who see things the way he does, if only we will use it like we did in electing PDJT. We need to have a huge turnout for the primaries and the November midterms. Death to globalist ambitions!

It’s all about the money, and POTUS has known this for a very long time as he has been dealing with China as a business man all these years. I guess we could say that POTUS Trump has personal knowledge of the Chines business culture and perfectly understands how the Chinese have used our economic system to build China from the failure of their Marxist government.

China figured out that the way to feed its population was to employ them in factories at labor rates that beat any other in the world, because the alternative was a failure. While I was in grad school (MBA) my International Business professor, who had had extensive business experience with China, explained that the Chinese government got to a place where they couldn’t finance their entitlement programs for their vast and massive population. When they understood that foreign investment could take its place and employ people in industries the Chinese had no infrastructure, they jumped at the chance. It was either they subsidized the Chinese worker/people or they let foreign investment take care of that!

So now we have our great POTUS Trump who knows plenty about China and their ways, and he knows that China would love to continue its incursion into global markets unimpeded, and to continue to have the back door entrance to our market via NAFTA, but they have to go through POTUS Trump first and our demands!

The world is now witnessing how great our Negotiation-In-Chief really is and I bet they are soiling their undies!

A rational human being with even a moderate sense of self-awareness and knowledge of history would recognize the inherent danger of concentrating all power in one fallible human being, ‘for life’. Mr. Jinping is clearly insane, and cares nothing about either his country or its future, because he has placed himself above both.

And that never ends well. Not for the would-be god-emperor, and not for the unfortunate people crushed beneath his ideology and his excesses.

With all the accumulated history and wisdom of the Chinese people, surely they know and understand that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Corrupts absolutely.

By even seeking to be ‘chairman for life’, Mr. Jinping is telling the whole world that he is already there.

Xi by becoming tyrant for life has become what the military calls a ‘point failure threat’; when one thing, or one person can cause a catastrophe all by themselves. Unfortunately China has a very long history of men (and the occasional woman, see Empress Dowager Ci’an)’ who after amassing absolute power repeatedly led the ship of state onto the rocks with a high body count.

Brilliant as usual Sundance.
I am optimistic that we will see an agreement with China that still confronts some of their economic manipulation (maybe not all of it). Nuclear free NK is worth a ton to the free world so that has massive value to Trump (USA). He will make the Panda give up something more than the nukes – Trump has always held a position that China is too manipulative and past presidents let them get away with it.
In my book, no nukes plus anything is a GREAT deal.
My son moved to Seoul 2 weeks ago, so yes, I have a very vested interest in a stable peninsula.